At a certain point in your journey as a company owner, there may come a time when you have more customers than you can adequately handle, but you also might not financially be in a position to hire or just can’t seem to find more qualified workers to bring on board to meet these needs.
Instead of performing multiple jobs with subpar results, it might be time to start letting a few customers go so you can deliver top-notch work, but how do you know who should stay and who should go?
Now might be a good time to take a step back and look at all of your customers, what value you offer them and where they are located, as this will help you determine which customers might be considered low-quality. Once that’s established, it’s important to fill your roster with high-quality customers that are, preferably, located near each other.
You might think that these high-quality customers don’t exist but it’s true that they are, indeed, out there, and you just have to know the right way to locate and talk to them.
Take a look at a few tips to keep in mind when seeking out high-quality customers.
Audience and targeting
Contrary to the sound of the word, “audience” doesn’t just refer to people willing to pay for your services. It actually means the best of the best out of your customer pool.
For example, it refers to the customer who is always on time with payments and always thanks you for your service, as they truly appreciate you and the quality of work you bring to the table.
These are the types of customers you want to find and keep as long as possible. Do you really want to perform services for customers who complain and nitpick about every little detail or who consistently threaten to go to another company because of your prices?
The goal is to create your ideal customer and set out to find that person. Because if you have one excellent customer already on board with your company, there’s a good chance that more like him/her are close by.
When beginning the targeting process of locating these ideal customers, keep the following questions in mind:
- What’s the neighborhood like that these customers live in, and where is it located?
- What’s their lot size?
- Are they concerned with price over quality?
- What’s their income, and what is their property worth?
- What is the best media approach to reach them?
- How do they look for lawn and landscape service providers? Do they look at websites, social media accounts or ask neighbors?
You might know the answer to most of these questions already, but for the ones you don’t, you can always talk to your existing clients and get a feel for potential new customers.
In order to bring in more of these high-quality customers, you have to know where to target and send out your message to get them interested.
Tailoring your message and picking your routes
When you’ve figured out who your target market will be, it’s time to figure out how to tailor your company’s message to fit the audience.
Take this time to listen to the phrases and words these customers use, and find out how they go about making decisions, such as basing it on dependability, location, price, appearance, etc.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to keep the same message across all channels, and it’s actually better for you to alter it a bit and have something different on each outlet.
To simplify the process, start by creating three individual platforms that are based around appearance, location and dependability. Run these three specific messages across your media advertisements to attract a wider audience, and even go so far as to deliver flyers and door hangers to neighborhoods where your targeted audience lives.
It’s good to remember that a message all about price isn’t necessarily the best way to bring in the high-quality customers you’re looking for, as most people won’t want to come back again after they’ve used their introductory coupon or offer. It can be a good addition to other selling points, but it’s not recommended to use it as the sole message in the advertisement.
Hopefully one of the big draws of these new customers is the fact that they can all be reached by taking a similar route, which means your employees will have less distance to drive and have a more optimized route with better route density.
Having better route density coupled with your new high-quality customers means that your company should begin seeing some sustainable growth in the future, and it could lead to more referrals in the area.
Establish the value of your offer and know your worth
Just because you tell customers that you are the best value around or that you offer the highest quality service doesn’t mean they will automatically take you at your word if you are using generic statements.
Instead of saying something like, “Satisfaction guaranteed,” try shaking it up with something specific and a little off the beaten path such as, “Never worry about lawn care and landscape needs again by partnering with the most reliable service in (your location).”
Having this specific and more powerful value statement not only sets you apart from the plethora of other lawn and landscape companies around, but it also speaks more directly to your customers by catching their attention and being something out of the ordinary.
If you have any awards or recognition that could go along with your statements, such as winning a competition for best customer service in your area or best designs of the year, it’s an excellent idea to put those on your value statements as well to ensure other companies can’t take your slogans for themselves.
Whatever you do, don’t sell yourself short. Don’t let customers bully or guilt you into lowering your prices or standards; you are the professional who knows how to do the job and you shouldn’t be treated otherwise.
The lack of stress that comes with working with one good customer, as well as the profit that comes from one reliable customer gladly paying full price for your services is far more valuable than having multiple subpar customers on your route.
As mentioned previously, you may need to start letting some of your lower-quality customers go, which can be terrifying, but never fear. Sometimes you have to let a few bad apples go to make way for a batch good enough for a pie, but in the end, it all bakes out.
